Obstetricians and gynecologists want women to keep coming to them for annual exams, even though women are no longer advised to get yearly Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer.
In new guidelines published Monday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists makes the case for an annual “well-woman” visit and continues to recommend annual pelvic exams for women older than age 21. But the doctors’ group also says “no evidence supports or refutes,” the value of the internal exam for finding signs of cancer or other problems in women with no symptoms. So the final decision is up to women and their doctors, the group says.
The guidelines come a few months after it, the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and several other groups said most women need a Pap smear only every three years, starting at age 21, and can get them even less frequently after age 30 if they also get tests for the cancer-causing human papillomavirus. Women with no history of problems can stop Pap tests at 65, the groups say.
But a Pap smear, in which cells are scraped from the cervix, is not a pelvic exam and a pelvic exam is just part of a preventive visit, the gynecologists’ group says.
